In the following exclusive piece for EPOS, Melania Malomo traces a detailed picture of the what is happening in the Gulf, pointing out the reasons at the basis of the diplomatic crisis in Qatar and elucidating the most relevant (political) acts that took place in the aftermath of the cut of ties with Doha

Epos converses with Dr. Masoumeh Velayati

byNicolamaria Coppola (EPOS)

EPOS Conversations

Masoumeh Velayati is a Lecturer in Gender and Development at Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education in Dundee, Scotland. She has a multi-disciplinary educational background in Islam, religion, and social science with particular focus on development, gender, and Islamic feminism. She has also experience of working in international development, as a result of which she designed, contributed and Co-ordinated MSc Programme in Development, Islam, and the Muslim World at Al-Maktoum College. In the following exclusive interview for EPOS she discusses the deal on the nuclear issue reached by Iran and the West, highlighting the strenghts and the weakness of the agreement and analysing the political, economic and social impacts of it on the Islamic Republic, across the MENA region and the whole World

The Houthis represent a serius threat for the Saud’s Kingdom at both the domestic and the international level. Saudi Arabia responded the menace by directly intervening in the conflict, leading a Sunni regional coalition. Why is Yemen so important for Saudi Arabia and its coalition? What is the Yemeni geostrategic value? In the following exclusive article - the second part of a deep analysis of the situation in Yemen - EPOS analyst Lorenzo Siggillino tries to answers these and other questions, focusing on all the elements in the game and all the interests at stake

Yemen is very susceptible to foreign interventions within domestic politics, as the country displays a high number of destabilizing forces combined with a high regional geo-strategic value. The Houthi offensive and the resulting Saudi reaction reinforced the national Sunni-Shia cleavage, pressuring local actors to slowly realign along religious identities. In the following exclusive article - the first part of a deep analysis of the situation in Yemen - EPOS analyst Lorenzo Siggillino focuses on the local actors involved in the insurgency, and outlines the interests of different opposition groups, investigating how their positions evolved and how the Shia offensive impacted on the local society

In the Arab world armies are a particular kind of actors: they have been an integral institution within the authoritarian regimes for the last 40 years but have acted as midwiges and active participants in the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, thereby easing the end of both regimes. It is possible to classify three models of post-regimes breakdown army postures (Tunisia, Egypt and Libya) but we can consider a fourth model, too, represented by the Yemeni military

The Arab Spring has so radically altered the geopolitics of the region that it is now necessary re-imagine the Middle East. The southern shore of the Mediterannean is still ebullient, but two years later the uprising of the revolts, what is the status quo of the situation and what are the expectations of the West after the Arab Spring?